Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T15:41:52.978Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New Radiocarbon Dates from Tel Kabri Support a High Middle Bronze Age Chronology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2016

Felix Höflmayer Open the ORCID record for Felix Höflmayer [Opens in a new window] ,
Assaf Yasur-Landau ,
Eric H Cline Open the ORCID record for Eric H Cline [Opens in a new window] ,
Michael W Dee ,
Brita Lorentzen  and
Simone Riehl
Felix Höflmayer*
Affiliation:
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, Postgasse 7/1/10, Vienna 1010, Austria.
Assaf Yasur-Landau
Affiliation:
University of Haifa - The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, Haifa, Israel.
Eric H Cline
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Washington, DC, USA.
Michael W Dee
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford, UK.
Brita Lorentzen
Affiliation:
Cornell University, Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Simone Riehl
Affiliation:
Eberhard Karls, Institut für Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie, Tübingen, Germany.
*
*Corresponding author. Email: felix.hoeflmayer@oeaw.ac.at.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents new radiocarbon evidence from the Middle Bronze Age palatial site of Tel Kabri (Israel). The final phase of the palace (Phase III) can be dated to Middle Bronze Age II, with an end date around the transition from Middle Bronze II to III or very early in Middle Bronze III. According to our 14C data, the end of Tel Kabri Phase III (and thus the transition from Middle Bronze II to III) can be dated to ~1700 BC. This date is about 50–100 yr earlier than traditional chronological models for the Middle Bronze Age propose (~1650 BC according to the traditional chronology or ~1600 BC according to the low chronology). 14C data from Tel Kabri thus add additional evidence for a higher Middle Bronze Age chronology for the Levant, consistent with recent 14C evidence from Tell el-Dabca (Egypt), Tel Ifshar (Israel), and Tell el-Burak (Lebanon).

Keywords

Tel Kabrisouthern LevantEgyptMiddle Bronze Agechronology
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 599 - 613
Copyright
© 2016 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ben-Tor, A. 2004. Hazor and chronology. Ägypten & Levante 14:45–67.Google Scholar
Ben-Tor, A. 2016. Hazor: Canaanite Metropolis, Israelite City. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.Google Scholar
Bietak, M. 2002. Relative and absolute chronology of the Middle Bronze Age: comments on the present state of research. In: Bietak M. The Middle Bronze Age in the Levant. Proceedings of an International Conference on MB IIA Ceramic Material. Vienna, 24th–26th of January 2001. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. p 29–42.Google Scholar
Bietak, M. 2007. Towards a Middle Bronze Age chronology. In: Matthiae P, Pinnock F, Nigro L, Peyronel L, editors. Proceedings of the International Colloquium. From Relative Chronology to Absolute Chronology: The Second Millennium BC in Syria-Palestine. (Rome, 29th November – 1st December 2001). Rome: Bardi Editore. p 121–46.Google Scholar
Bietak, M. 2013. Antagonisms in historical and radiocarbon chronology. In: Shortland AJ, Bronk Ramsey C, editors. Radiocarbon and the Chronologies of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 76–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bietak, M, Kopetzky, K, Stager, LE, Voss, R. 2008. Synchronisation of stratigraphies: Ashkelon and Tell el-Dabca. Ägypten & Levante 18:49–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009a. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–360.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009b. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51(3):1023–1045.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, CE, Kenworthy, JB, Litton, CD, Smith, AFM. 1991. Combining archaeological and radiocarbon information: a Bayesian approach to calibration. Antiquity 65(249):808–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cline, EH, Yasur-Landau, A. 2007. Poetry in motion: Canaanite rulership and Aegean narrative at Kabri. In: Morris SP, Laffineur R, editors. Epos: Reconsidering Greek Epic and Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology. Proceedings of the 11th International Aegean Conference / 11e Rencontre égéenne internationale, Los Angeles, UCLA - The J. Paul Getty Villa, 20–23 April 2006. Liège: Université de Liège; Austin: University of Texas at Austin. p 157–66.Google Scholar
Cline, EH, Yasur-Landau, A, Goshen, N. 2011. New fragments of Aegean-style painted plaster from Tel Kabri, Israel. American Journal of Archaeology 115:245–261.Google Scholar
Dee, MW, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2014. High-precision Bayesian modeling of samples susceptible to inbuilt age. Radiocarbon 56(1):83–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dever, WG. 1992. The chronology of Syria-Palestine in the Second Millennium B.C.E.: a review of current issues. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 288:1–25.Google Scholar
Dever, WG. 1997. Settlement patterns and chronology of Palestine in the Middle Bronze Age. In: Oren ED, editor. The Hyksos. New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives. Philadelphia: The University Museum. p 285–301.Google Scholar
Goshen, N, Yasur-Landau, A, Cline, EH. 2013. Textile production in palatial and non-palatial contexts: the case of Tel Kabri. In: Nosch M, Koefoed H, Andersson Strand E, editors. Textile Production and Consumption in the Ancient Near East. Archaeology, Epigraphy, Iconography. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 45–53.Google Scholar
Höflmayer, F. 2015. Carbone-14 comparé: Middle Bronze Age I (IIA) chronology, Tell el-Dabca and radiocarbon data. In: Mynářová J, Onderka P, Pavúk P, editors. There and Back Again - the Crossroads II. Proceedings of an International Conference Held in Prague, September 15–18, 2014. Prag: Charles University in Prague. p 265–95.Google Scholar
Höflmayer, F, Kamlah, J, Sader, H, Dee, MW, Kutschera, W, Wild, EM, Riehl, S. 2016. New evidence for Middle Bronze Age chronology and synchronisms in the Levant: radiocarbon dates from Tell el-Burak, Tell el-Dabca, and Tel Ifshar compared. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 375:53–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, W, Wasserman, N. 2000. An Old Babylonian letter from Hazor with mention of Mari and Ekallātum. Israel Exploration Journal 50(3/4):169–174.Google Scholar
Kempinski, A. editor. 2002. Tel Kabri: The 1986–1993 Excavation Seasons (Tel Aviv University. Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology. Monograph Series 20). Tel Aviv: Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology.Google Scholar
Kempinski, A, Gershuny, L, Scheftelowitz, N. 2002. Pottery. III. Middle Bronze Age. In: Kempinski A, editor. Tel Kabri. The 1986–1993 Excavation Seasons. Tel Aviv: Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology. p 109–175.Google Scholar
Koh, AJ, Yasur-Landau, A, Cline, EH. 2014. Characterizing a Middle Bronze Age palatial wine cellar from Tel Kabri, Israel. PLoS One 9(8):e106406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kutschera, W, Bietak, M, Wild, EM, Bronk Ramsey, C, Dee, MW, Golser, R, Kopetzky, K, Stadler, P, Steier, P, Thanheiser, U, Weninger, F. 2012. The chronology of Tell el-Daba: a crucial meeting point of 14C dating, archaeology, and Egyptology in the 2nd millennium BC. Radiocarbon 54(3–4):407–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, ES. 2013. Correlating and combining Egyptian historical and southern Levantine radiocarbon chronologies at Middle Bronze Age IIa Tel Ifshar, Israel. In: Shortland AJ, Bronk Ramsey C, editors. Radiocarbon and the Chronologies of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 182–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marom, N, Yasur-Landau, A, Zuckerman, S, Cline, EH, Ben-Tor, A, Bar-Oz, G. 2014. Shepherd kings? A zooarchaeological investigation of elite precincts in Middle Bronze Age Tel Hazor and Tel Kabri. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 371:59–82.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffmann, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–1887.Google Scholar
Samet, I. 2014. The chrono-typological pottery sequence from the Middle Bronze Age palace at Kabri: some preliminary results. Ägypten & Levante 24:365–395.Google Scholar
Sharon, I. 2014. Levantine chronology. In: Steiner ML, Killebrew AE, editors. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant. c. 8000–332 BCE. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p 44–65.Google Scholar
Shortland, AJ, Bronk Ramsey, C, editors. 2013. Radiocarbon and the Chronologies of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Stager, LE, Voss, R. 2011. Egyptian pottery in Middle Bronze Age Ashkelon. Eretz Israel 30:119*–126*.Google Scholar
Weninger, F, Steier, P, Kutschera, W, Wild, EM. 2006. The principle of the Bayesian method. Ägypten & Levante 16:317–324.Google Scholar
Wild, EM, Steier, P, Fischer, PM, Höflmayer, F. 2013. 14C dating of humic acids from Bronze and Iron Age plant remains from the eastern Mediterranean. Radiocarbon 55(2–3):599–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yadin, Y. 1972. Hazor: The Head of All Those Kingdoms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yasur-Landau, A, Cline, EH. 2014. The four-dimensional palace. The Middle Bronze Age palace of Kabri through time. In: Souvatzi S, Hadji A, editors. Space and Time in Mediterranean Prehistory. London: Routledge. p 231–245.Google Scholar
Yasur-Landau, A, Cline, EH, Pierce, GA. 2008. Middle Bronze Age settlement patterns in the western Galilee, Israel. Journal of Field Archaeology 33(1):59–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yasur-Landau, A, Cline, EH, Goshen, N, Marom, N, Samet, I. 2012. An MB II Orthostat building at Tel Kabri, Israel. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 367:1–29.Google Scholar
Yasur-Landau, A, Cline, EH, Goshen, N. 2014. Initial results of the stratigraphy and chronology of the Tel Kabri Middle Bronze Age palace. Ägypten & Levante 24:355–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar